Political Science Coursework, Federalist Number 10

  Political Science Name Institution Date What do the Federalist Papers #10 and #51 say about factions? How ,when, and why were political parties first formed in the United States? Has the system changed since the founding of the nation? What has remained the same?               James Madison advocated for adopting federalism paper 10 in 1787 where the central government would safeguard against the factionalism of smaller republics. This would require creation of a non-partisan national government, which is a democracy and republic (Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes, 2014).  Madison argued that the “factions are the ‘small parties or groups united by a common interest- that will control the government.”  The danger with factions is that they would implement policies that served their interests only and be harmful to others, but when different factions are held together by the local or regional interests no faction would dominate national politics. Federalist paper 51 also written by Madison focusing on checks and balances where there were three independent branches with power, but the government would protect individual rights (Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes, 2014). In his essays, Madison supported the idea of an independent branches of the government where none held too much power or overly dependent on the other. After the new constitution was enacted there were two opposing sides the supporters who were Federalist and supported by James Madison and the opponents who were the anti-federalists. After the Revolutionary War, the Federalist Party was formed in 1787 and in 1796 the anti-Federalist was formed and supported Jefferson under the Democratic-Republican group. Later on the anti-federalists won an election against Madison in the Senate (Schmidt, Shelley & Bardes, 2014). The northerners mostly supported the Federalist Party, while the Democratic-Republican Party was dominated by artisans and small farmers, and the people wanted limited federal government power.   The Federalists  first campaigned more intensely relying on big newspapers to articulate policy issues, but the Republicans also pushed back supporting their anti-Federalist views.             The parties were formed to address interests, policy positions and issues, since supporters focused on different aspects. In 1828 the Democratic- Republicans transformed into the Democratic Party, the start of an era where  parties held ideological positions, with the Republican Party having emerged in 1854, and the two party system has endured (Reichley, 2000). While the political landscape has changed from the country’s independence and Civil War, people can form political parties if they wish. However, the political positions between the Democrats and Republicans are wider than ever before, that many parties would be supporting specific policy positions of the major parties, and even at time supporting less popular positions. The 1776 Declaration of Independence and the Constitution established the Federal government, and the political structure has evolved where voters mainly choose between the two. The ...